Thieves, Liars and Politicians

I was speaking with a friend, recently, about how confusing the laws of this country can be. It seems that if you break into someone's home and steal, you are a thief, and go to jail. If you are a politician, and you steal from your constituents, you'll probably get re-elected. We all get to see this on a national level and on a City level.

On the National level, our congress and our President are stealing from us on a daily basis. Sometimes with small things - little tax hikes to pay for some politician's pet project - sometimes with really large things - A health care "reform" program that will steal billions from the taxpayers while damaging the system they are claiming to fix.

Every time these things happen, you need to follow the money train. When it comes to a politician's pet project, you can almost always follow the campain contributions and extra perks to the sponsoring politician. Please understand that there are some Congressmen and Senators who actually do what we send them to Washington to do. Sadly, our system demands that most of these people have to be re-elected every 2 years for Congressmen and every 6 years for Senators, and they need to fund those campains. Who could blame them for taking contributions in exchange for voting in favor of things they would have favored anyway. That probably accounts for 70% to 80% of all the legislation we see. The problem happens when the other 20% to 30% occurs - the bills that they really have to hold their noses when they vote for them - but that's where the big money is. Let's face it, the people paying the way know which bills are pretty good anyway, so they don't put a lot of money into those. When the really distasteful stuff comes up - really big money - they hide it in a bill that everyone has to vote in favor of. Have a bill to add taxes to the middle class? Tuck it as an amendment on a bill that says we like puppies. Everybody likes puppies, don't they? So, who can complain about voting on a bill about puppies? Well there is that tax the middle class amendment, but we can't vote against puppies.

This weekend, the government is voting on the biggest bill in years. There's no way to bury it in another bill, and the public is really aware of it. They have done everything they can to bury the details, some people still think they will get free health care (the reality is they will be forced to purchase health care at higher prices or they will be fined). Now they are trying back room deals, changes in rules, and every other trick to get this passed. Does this just scream big, big, big payoffs? The health insurance companies are really pushing this mess. They know that when 30 million people are forced purchase insurance they will make billions. A great deal for the American people, right? Even the religeous groups are fighting hard "for the good of the people". We'll see what happens.

In the City, it's more of the same. We have smaller issues, but they are just as important. We have an election about the Strong Mayor format. As The Reader has reported, this Mayor has been involved in criminal activity, the power of the Strong Mayor has created a very serious situation. The City has lost hundreds of police officers and firemen. People have died. The City is broke. The Mayor has fired and laid off workers who either prevented him from breaking the law or reported him to the FBI. The City Council, with no real power, has been crippled by this format. They are powerless to pevent these issues.

Stay informed about what is happening, San Diego, and you can see the truth.